Wake Forest Baptist Health — Lexington Medical Center will lose 4.5 positions after a reduction in force announcement Wednesday from its parent organization.The 4.5 positions are out of a total of 950 jobs within Wake Forest Baptist Health that will be cut.“Lexington Medical Center already has much of (the reduction in force) in its review mirror because most of it has already been achieved through office integration and attrition,” said Dr. John D. McConnell, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center chief executive officer.Of the 950 positions, 56.5 are jobs at Lexington Medical Center. Through back office integration resulting from the 2008 merger between Lexington Memorial Hospital and Wake Forest Baptist Health, attrition and retirements, 52 of the 56.5 positions have already been achieved, said Kathy Sushereba, communication director for the medical center, in an email. The remaining 4.5 positions will be cut over the course of the year.“The medical center is constantly changing; we are going through what everyone in the industry going through,” said Steve Snelgrove, president of Lexington Medical CenterThis week, as part of the transition, 76 Wake Forest Baptist employees are being laid off, stated a press release from WFBH. Of the 950 full-time equivalent positions, about 50 percent of the eliminations will be achieved through deletion of vacant, temporary and contract labor positions, as well as normal attrition and retirements. Consequently, there may be as many as 475 currently filled employee FTE positions eliminated by the end of June, the press release added. Snelgrove said the layoffs would not affect the patient care or patient to nurse ratio at Lexington Medical Center, adding that the ratio is 1 to 6.McConnell also pointed out that the decision for the layoffs was proactive, not retroactive. The planning for the layoffs began in the spring of this year in response to what corporate officials predict will be coming in the next few months within the health care industry and the declining governmental reimbursement to providers, McConnell said. Even with expansion of health care coverage to the uninsured, industry experts expect at least a 10 percent reduction in reimbursements in the next two to three years, the press release stated.“We wanted to position the medical center to continue what has been a phenomenal two years. We’ve had two of the most successful years in (Wake Forest Baptist Health) as a whole. We want to not just survive but continue to grow and be successful,” McConnell said.The layoffs put the organization in a place to financially respond more rapidly to the potential changes in the next 12 to 24 months, McConnell added. With the announcement of the layoffs in electronic form, Snelgrove said the medical center had experienced some unease. “I think any time there is change and you communicate it in a large electronic message like this, there are people that are going to ask questions. We are having a town hall meeting (Thursday) to help employees understand what is going on. There is very little change here, but we always want to make sure we are available and transparent,” Snelgrove said.

Rebekah Cansler McGee can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 228, or at rebekah.mcgee@the-dispatch.com.